Cocaine driver in stolen Kia caused four-car pile-up outside Leeds cemetery
A driver who stole his dad’s car while high on cocaine caused a four-car pile up that left a woman with life-changing injuries.
Wayne Iceton lot control of the Kia Sportage and ploughed into a parked car which careered into two others.
All were empty apart from a Ford Ka, from which the driver had to be cut free by firefighters.
Iceton escaped with a suspended sentence at Leeds Crown Court after expressing his remorse and saying: “I wish I could turn back the clock.”
The court heard that Iceton had stayed with his father on the night of July 8, 2023. But the next morning his father noticed his Kia was missing.
Shortly after 1pm on July 9, Iceton lost control of the 4x4 on Gelderd Road in West Leeds, adjacent to the Jewish cemetery.
One witness said he heard a loud bang and went outside to see the Kia rolling onto its roof.
He hit the parked car with such force he forced it back around 10 metres. It smashed into two others, including the Ford Ka.
Iceton escaped largely uninjured and remained at the scene. He was breath tested for alcohol and passed, but he failed a drug test for cocaine and MDMA.
The female Ka driver suffered a lacerated spleen, cuts and bruises and wounds to her leg.
She later had to undergo surgery, suffers with panic attacks, sleeping problems and remain on blood thinners, possibly for the rest of her life.
Iceton, of Osbourne Court, Bramley, admitted aggravated vehicle taking and causing serious injury through careless driving.
He has 29 convictions for 37 previous offences, including drug-related misdemeanours and theft.
The 45-year-old was not represented in court and told the judge: “I’m ashamed. I can’t imagine what she went through, to be cut out of that car because of my actions.
“I wish I could turn back the clock.”
The father-of-three said that he is now clean from alcohol and drugs having paid £9,000 for a month-long rehabilitation stint at a clinic.
He said he was due to take over his father’s building business this year, and claimed it could go bust if he was jailed, but Judge Andrew Stubbs KC was highly skeptical about the claim.
Judge Stubbs said: “What made you run into parked cars you probably won’t be able to explain but you accept it’s connected to the amount of drink and drugs you had taken.
“You have had a dreadful impact on the woman’s life. Her life will never be the same again. This is life-changing stuff for her.
“I have absolutely no doubt you deserve to go to prison.”
However, the court heard that Iceton was inexplicably summoned to the magistrates’ court last year for the drug-driving aspect of the incident.
He was jailed for 15 weeks and banned from driving for three years.
Judge Stubbs told him: “Had you not gone to prison for that, I would have sent you for a lot longer today.”
He gave him a 12-month sentence, suspended for 12 months, and 180 hours of unpaid work.